‘Generation of spoiled idiots’ don’t know how good they got it

By Shawn Langlois

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Louis C.K. wasn’t talking stocks, but he could have been, when he said, “Now we live in an amazing, amazing world, and it’s wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots.”

That’s a bit strong. Some of the smartest people aren’t buying this market. And plenty of idiots are eating it up. Yet there’s a prevailing darkness settling over the news flow that doesn’t care much about the market’s reluctance to correct. Just ask our friends in Ferguson, Ukraine and Gaza.

“Compared with any time in the past half-century, the world as a whole is today wealthier, healthier, happier, cleverer, cleaner, kinder, freer, safer, more peaceful and more equal,” he wrote in a piece posted on the Rational Optimist blog. “The world’s always full of atrocity, violence, death and debt.”

Josh Brown of the Reformed Broker blog kept with the theme when he asked, “What the f*** else do you people need to be happy?” This, after listing several modern-day perks like Jennifer Lawrence, Uber and, of course, “Game of Thrones”.

He pointed to a recent Gallup poll, which showed that a lowly 22% of Americans are satisfied with how the country is going (see chart of the day).

There’s no reason to believe that we, as a people, will be getting any happier this week. Just like there’s no reason to believe the market’s going react negatively to all the bad news (though ignore these 3 dangers for stocks at your peril). Stocks are up heading into Monday’s regular session.

Key market gauges: Big money poured into the Market Vectors Russia ETF
/quotes/zigman/464082/delayed/quotes/nls/rsxRSX last week, helping to stoke a rally of almost 3% for the exchange-traded fund. But the advance ran out of steam at the end of the week, amid fears of escalating tensions in Ukraine. Russian stocks, again, promise to be volatile in the coming days.

The quote of the day:“When there aren’t enough good investing opportunities, people wishing to save more for the future may succeed only in bidding up existing assets, even if they think they’re overpriced. Call it the ‘life preserver on the Titanic’ theory.” — Robert Shiller, extrapolating from the ideas of Robert Lucas.

The economy: The ones to watch this week hit on Tuesday and Thursday, when we’ll get July housing starts and existing home sales, respectively. Also of note, Friday brings us a speech from Fed Chair Janet Yellen in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Today, we can chew on the NAHB homebuilder survey at 10:00 a.m Eastern.

The call of the day:A painful day of reckoning is coming to the bond market, according to John Mauldin, whose newsletter typically has more bubbles than an Ibiza nightclub. This week, though, he takes it up a few notches. He’s talking bond bubble and using this chart to drawn a comparison to the bursting of the tech bubble. “Investors are barely being compensated for the risks they’re taking,” Mauldin wrote. “One day, all the debt will come due, and it will end with a bang.”

Read why Cullen Roche of the Pragmatic Capitalism blog felt compelled to write a response called the “silly charts edition”, in which he takes issue with a couple of Mauldin’s points, including how the axes were manipulated.

The chart of the day: It’s been more than a decade since a majority of Americans were satisfied with the direction of the country, according to a recent Gallup poll. But hey, at 22%, at least we’re not October 2008, when a scant 7% gave a nod of approval, in the face of the financial crisis. Still, we’re not pleased with what’s happening, and needless to say, that doesn’t bode well for those in office. “With Americans mostly dissatisfied with the state of the country, and most disapproving of the job President Obama is doing, the Democratic Party is going into the fall midterm in a very unfavorable political environment,” Jeffrey Jones said.

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Need to Know (NTK) guides investors to the most important, insightful items required to chart a course ahead of each trading day. Anchored by lead writer Shawn Langlois, NTK will sift through the fire hose of news, commentary and data, from traditional and non-traditional sources, and extract what’s most essential. You can start reading NTK here as it begins publishing at approximately 6:30 a.m. ET, or sign up here to get a version in your email box every morning at approximately 8:45. a.m. ET.